Under-20 Head Coach Appointed

Tue, 5th Jul 2016 10:24pm

The club is delighted to announce the appointment of Richard Fox as head coach of Clyde's under-20s side.

Richard will be assisted by first team squad member, JP McGovern.

Clyde chief executive, David Douglas said: "Richard has a wealth of experience in youth football, including at Falkirk FC and Stenhousemuir FC. He will help to develop our young players on the pitch and also help them to grow as young men, treating both winning and losing with dignity and grace.

"He is highly respected throughout Central Scotland; innovative, hard-working and he will be a great ambassador for our club.

"His main priority has always been to produce young players who will do their club proud both on and off the pitch. It's a great coup for our manager to get him on board."

"It's vital for the club that it starts producing its own players - something that hasn't happened in recent years. Richard will very much be in charge of the team and their coaching, but I'll be taking a big involvement in terms of player recruitment and then developing them through to the first team squad.

"We're at the very early stages of the recruitment process at the moment and it's going to take at least three or four months to get it fully moving, but we've got to start somewhere and make sure we get it right this time. Ideally we want to take players aged between 16-18, who will benefit from the experience of under-20 football and who we can work with to turn them into Clyde players.

"It's great that JP will also be involved. He's still an important part of the first team squad but he's keen to start moving into the coaching side and he'll provide another link between the youth and senior squads."

Speaking to the official website this evening, Richard said: "I'm delighted to be here. My main passion will be coaching and developing the young players on the training field, with the end goal of getting them into the first team. That's going to be a long process and it won't be something we do overnight. However with patience and hard work, I'm sure that the club will be rewarded with players coming through.

"It's about putting the right programme into place, where each individual can find their own path. We'll also be looking at what the players are doing off the pitch and the mental side of the game, to ensure that they can reach their full potential."